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“Hip-hop is the number one form of communication in the world,” says Nook Turner, founder of JumpOnIt. With the goals of community building as his top priority, Turner created JumpOnIt as a different kind of music festival – one that uses hip-hop as a vessel to promote health awareness, entrepreneurism, and community pride.

Miniature house builder, Bruce Miller, discusses the origins of his passion for the scaled-down construction and remodeling of petite homes. He explains his process for mini-sized interior design, and the reasoning behind different room furnishings.

As they strive to connect the community together through arts, Creative Action holds a monthly event called Community Art Sundays. This event is designed to introduce members of the community to one another through fun, family friendly art related activities.

KLRU & the arts community invite you to join us for a night of music and art in East Austin as we premiere Arts In Context Season 7. The event is free but an RSVP is required. RSVP now

The party takes place Tuesday, Sept. 20th, starting at 6 pm at Handsome (1000 East 6th Street). Enjoy tasty bites, cocktails, live music, a gallery inspired by the Season 7 featured arts groups and a video preview of the upcoming season.

On Sept. 12-17, KLRU and PBS will be showcasing a week full of primetime programming which will focus on the challenges facing the American education system.

As part of KLRU’s and PBS’ commitment to education, the programs will explore the classrooms of today and explain how the amount of creativity and dedication that goes into teaching children makes a difference in schools and communities. Along with episodes from our core series such as POV, TED Talks and Frontline, the schedule will include primetime and PLUS programming, both of which are one-time specials.

Spotlight Education week in Austin is supported by Austin Community College.

Monday, September 12
9 pm – POV: All The Difference weaves together the stories of two promising young men as they navigate their lives in low-income, high-risk communities in Chicago. The 90-minute film explores the factors in their lives that made all the difference – an example of prioritizing education as a tool to secure a place in the middle class. Accompany two African-American teens from the South Side of Chicago on their journey to achieve their dream of graduating from college. Follow the young men through five years of hard work, sacrifice, setbacks and uncertainty.

10:30 pm – Arts In Context Music for All Offering free, intensive music education to low-income youth from Travis and Hays County, Austin Soundwaves believes firmly in the principle that all students deserve a world-class education in the fine arts. Determined to make a difference in the minority community of Austin at a young age, the Hispanic Alliance of Performing Arts launched Austin Soundwaves. Program director Patrick Slevin and his team have already seen a positive impact on their students’ overall academics, motivation levels, and self-esteem. For Slevin, Austin Soundwaves is the first step towards providing the world class fine arts education that all students deserve.

Tuesday, September 13
8 pm – FRONTLINE dives deep into the most pressing issues in education by updating two films.; “The Diploma Mill” and “Omarina’s Story.” “The Diploma Mill” (wt), a fresh look at the troubled for-profit college industry, examining reports of predatory behavior and fraud and the implosion of the education chain Corinthian Colleges. “Omarina’s Story” looks at how a program to stem the high school drop-out crisis has affected one girl’s journey. It chronicles how an innovative program to stem the high school drop-out crisis has affected one girl’s journey, from a public middle school in the Bronx to an elite New England private school to college. The film documents the divergent fates of two twins from the Bronx and sheds light on America’s dropout crisis and the brutal inequities in American Education.

9 pm – TED Talks: Education Revolution is hosted by writer/comedian Baratunde Thurston and actress/singer Sara Ramirez and includes short films, music, and inspiring speakers who are making a difference in our nation’s schools and universities. Explore innovative approaches to education. Speakers, including Anna Deavere Smith and Sal Khan, discus the school-to-prison pipeline, micromanaging kids and turning struggling students into scholars.

10 pm – The Address, a film by Ken Burns tells the story of a tiny school in Putney, Vermont, where the students are encouraged to memorize, practice and recite the Gettysburg Address, to unlock the history, context and importance of President Lincoln’s most powerful speech.

Wednesday, September 14
8 pm – NOVA: School of the Future, a two-hour documentary, looks at the school of the future by exploring “learning science,” a complex and interdisciplinary new field that encompasses neuroscience, physiology, and the psychology of children. In a new age of information, rapid innovation and globalization, how can we prepare our children to compete? Discover how the new science of learning can help us reimagine the future of education for all children.

Thursday, September 15
7:30 pm – Eastside Education is a KLRU production. Follow students, teachers and staff at an Austin high school under threat of closure by the state. For years Eastside Memorial High School has been plagued by failing test scores and negative headlines.An Eastside Education spends one semester at one of Austin’s lowest income schools, as teachers, parents, administrators, and students fight to meet state accountability standards or watch their school be closed.

8 pm – Time for School is an award-winning documentary project that visited seven classrooms in seven countries around the world. View an update to the documentary project that visits seven classrooms in seven countries and offers a glimpse of seven children struggling to get a basic education. The film catches up with the now adult seven to see how their lives have turned out.

Friday, September 169:30 pm – Craft in America: Teachers begins its eighth season on PBS with a unique hour that celebrates teachers: craft artists renowned for their own artistic visions, and committed to passing on their skills and passion for craft to new generations of students and artists.

Three Austin, Latino artists: Claudia Aparicio-Gamundi, James Huizar and Claudia Zapata are changing the tradition of art through experience and happenings, not just art.

In 2012, The Puro Chingón Collective was born, which set off to break the traditional art space and aimed it towards the exterior of the art space, resulting in connectivity among the art and bystanders. The collective is a Latino art trifecta specializing in happenings, the activation of nontraditional spaces, designer toys and art zines. Ultimately, the art work goes untouched from the artist to the public and illustrates that people are not alone in their thoughts.

Austin is constantly changing. Whether that be its music, food or art scene there is always something trendy around the corner. Which is why Arts In Context is seeking applicants for artists to feature on the award-winning series.

With Arts In Context, KLRU aims to pique curiosity and inspire individuals by spotlighting visual arts, dance, music and culture. Each episode is compelling and character driven.

If you have a story that anyone can be inspired by or can relate to, make sure to apply today. Apply here

Prakash Mohandas, founder of Agni The Dance Company, has set his mark in Austin by opening the first Bollywood dance studio in the area. Founded in 2007, Agni consists of professional performers, aspiring artists, instructors, production assistants and a management team united by a common love of the performing arts and creative expression.

“Choreography doesn’t come from thin air,” Mohandas said. “For me, (the song) has to inspire me for me to want to choreograph it. When I get into that space, it’s a very spiritual experience.”

One of Agni’s primary goals is to provide quality Indian, performing arts education in various locations in Austin and Round Rock areas through classes conducted by experienced and renowned instructors.

“Austin is fantastic for eclectic audiences,” he said. “I think it’s one of the cities that I’ve seen that is so welcoming to new kinds of art forms and a new kinds of dance.”

While traveling across Europe, Mychal Mitchell thought she would be inspired by the architecture of the cities she visited but after having her journal stolen in a train station she soon discovered a bookbinding studio in Venice and fell in love with the old-world-style of handmade leather journals.

“I discovered bookbinding kind of my accident,” Mitchell said. “About a week later, I was kind of flirting with this very handsome street artist and he ended up taking me to his friend’s little bookbinding studio and I ended up being blown away by what he was doing.”
Now, more than 20 years later, Mitchell continues to use the techniques she learned on her European trip and shares her beautiful handcrafted journals and photo albums with others in her East Austin Studio.

“It’s really inspiring to see the way that people use them,” she said. “Especially when people bring them back to me and they are all filled up…they’re gorgeous.”

Dance Another World has created a new standard on the classic view of learning a new language. Through dance, Dance Another World, intertwines an English immersion program for young non-native females in America. Founded by trained ballerina, Dawn Mann, Dance Another World helps refugees and students from low socioeconomic communities by inspiring its students to express their thoughts and feelings into a creative movement.